A Witch Before Dying (Wicked Witches of the Midwest Book 11)

by Amanda M. Lee

  “It’s always good to know your enemies,” Thistle pointed out.

  “I didn’t realize you’d both decided that Scarlet was your enemy.”

  “You saw what I found in my shoe,” I protested. “How can you say that she’s not our enemy?”

  “I’m not suggesting that we shouldn’t watch her,” Landon clarified, refusing to let go of my hand when I tried to draw it back. “I’m simply saying that she hasn’t done anything yet to invoke the Winchester family ire stick.”

  I was taken aback. “Ire stick?”

  “You know. It’s a stick that you use to beat people who irk you.” Landon mimed hitting Thistle with an invisible stick for emphasis.

  “Oh, I totally want an ire stick now,” Thistle enthused.

  “You and me both.” I giggled when Landon shot me an amused look. “You brought it up.”

  “Yes, and now I wish I hadn’t.” Landon shifted to face me. “You don’t know that Scarlet Darksbane is doing anything nefarious.”

  “She put a poppet in my shoe,” I reminded him.

  “See, you say that thing is a poppet,” Landon argued. “To me it looks like a small clump of straw.”

  “You had a poppet in your shoe?” Thistle was intrigued. “Do you still have it?”

  “Yeah.” I retrieved the baggie I grabbed from Chief Terry’s vehicle from the table by the door – I was so tired upon returning home that I’d almost forgotten about it – and wordlessly handed it to Thistle.

  Landon held up the blanket so I could get comfortable a second time, his gaze never leaving Thistle’s face. “What do you think that is?”

  “It’s not naturally occurring,” Thistle replied immediately. “Someone tied string to it to make it look like a person. How do you explain that?”

  “I don’t know.” Landon slid a sidelong look in my direction. “She was acting odd before she found it.”

  “How?”

  “She was … cranky.”

  Thistle barked out a laugh. “She’s always cranky. She gets that from Aunt Tillie.”

  “That’s rich coming from you,” I muttered under my breath.

  “Let’s not lose focus,” Landon interjected quickly. “If this is a poppet, what was it supposed to do?”

  “It could be anything,” I replied. “The second I locked it in the bag, though, I felt better. Before that I thought I was going to have a pounding headache and I was massively irritated with Chief Terry. I never get irritated with Chief Terry.”

  “That’s true. He seems oblivious to your anger.”

  “He would never risk a beating with the ire stick,” Thistle teased. “Why do you think Scarlet Darksbane put it on you?”

  “Because she just happened to show up at lunch,” I said. “She heard we were questioning Mrs. Little about her and she wanted to confront me.”

  “Did you rip her hair out of her head?” Thistle asked. “By the way, that’s totally a weave. I saw her walking down the street and there’s no way her hair is real.”

  “Her boobs are fake, too,” I added.

  “Geez. You two sound like jealous mean girls.” Landon pressed the heel of his hand to his forehead. “Bay, I was sitting right next to you throughout lunch. Scarlet was across from you. She didn’t have a chance to slip that thing on you.”

  “She could’ve done it when we were distracted,” I argued. “Her foot brushed mine several times. I thought she was trying to play footsies with you. I wasn’t around anyone else who could’ve put that poppet on me today. I woke up with you. I drove to a crime scene with you. I spent hours in my office alone. Then I went to Hypnotic. Then I went to Mrs. Little’s shop with Thistle, but she stayed behind the counter and we were the only ones there. Then I met you for lunch. When else could it have been put on me?”

  “I don’t know,” Landon said, shifting uncomfortably. “It’s just … she seemed friendly.”

  “You only think that because she spent the entire meal fawning all over you and Chief Terry,” I groused. I knew I sounded petulant, but I was convinced Scarlet Darksbane was going to cause a lot of trouble. “You think she’s too pretty to be evil.”

  “Oh, give me a break,” Landon said. “I happen to think you’re much prettier, and I know there are times when you’re evil.”

  “Like when?”

  “Like when you don’t have a good night’s sleep and regular meals,” Landon answered, not missing a beat. “I can’t wait until you get a full night’s sleep tonight, because you’re extremely cranky.”

  “Whatever.” I didn’t bother to hide my scowl as I directed my attention to Thistle. “Just tell me what you have.”

  Thistle placed the baggie containing the poppet on the table and tapped a few buttons on the laptop keyboard. “It’s kind of weird – and I think Landon is going to think I’m playing into your feverish delusions – but what you just said makes sense given what I found in the chatroom.”

  I puffed out my chest and zinged Landon with an “I told you so” stare, which he promptly ignored.

  “Just tell us,” Landon said. “At this point, I want her to be right, otherwise she’s going to do something kooky.”

  “I don’t do kooky things,” I snapped.

  “Says the woman who conducts séances and goes on adventures with her great-aunt, who just happens to wear a combat helmet while swinging a big stick and blowing a whistle.”

  “Oh, well, when you say it like that … .”

  Landon grinned as he grabbed my hand. “You need to chill a bit, sweetie. I get that you’re worked up with everything that’s happened, but there’s no reason to jump to conclusions – at least not yet.”

  “That’s very wise.” I squeezed his hand. “You’re totally full of crap, though.” I turned to Thistle. “Lay it on me.”

  “Well, it seems that Scarlet – and I can’t find any mention of a real name, so we’re going to need Landon and Chief Terry to get that information for us – was part of some Wicca circle in Grand Rapids several years ago.”

  “Grand Rapids?” I rolled my neck. “Didn’t she say she was from Ohio?”

  “I can’t remember exactly what she said, but that sounds right,” Landon said. “She kind of evaded that question.”

  “I wasn’t sure you’d noticed.”

  “Cops and FBI agents make people nervous, Bay,” Landon said. “I’ve found most people don’t want to talk about themselves when law enforcement is around. They think it’s a form of entrapment or something.”

  “I never cared about stuff like that even after I found out you were an FBI agent,” I pointed out.

  “Yes, but you’re a unique woman.” Landon traced his fingers over my palm. “Hmm. That’s weird. Now that I think about it, you did talk all of the time even after you found out who I really was.”

  “That’s because she’s chatty,” Thistle said.

  “That’s because she reads people well,” Landon corrected.

  “Which means I’m reading Scarlet right,” I pressed.

  “Fair enough.” Landon nodded. “What did you find, Thistle?”

  “Well, it’s hardly proof that you guys would use, but it’s interesting all the same,” Thistle replied. “Three different women in this chatroom claim they hired Scarlet for a personal cleansing, but it was only after she offered her services and they turned her down.”

  “What’s a personal cleansing?” Landon asked.

  “It’s kind of like … um … a spa visit for your aura.” Explaining magic to someone outside the circle was often difficult. “For people who suffer from runs of bad luck ... or family tragedy … or even a series of nightmares, cleansings can help.”

  “Okay, go on.”

  “The thing is, all three of these women – and from what I can tell, they’re lipstick witches at best – claim that they didn’t have problems until Scarlet offered cleansings,” Thistle said. “They accused her of creating the bad luck and then offering to swoop in to get rid of the bad luck.”

/>   “So it’s kind of like a scam,” Landon noted. “Wait … what’s a lipstick witch?”

  “One in name only,” I replied. “Aunt Tillie coined the term. It’s for witches who dress up like witches but don’t wear the underwear to match the ensemble.”

  “Yeah, you’re just confusing me now.” Landon stretched. “So the beef with Scarlet is that she offered her services for a fee, was turned down, created a situation where these people would have no choice but to say yes and then essentially collected the fee after all. Am I understanding what you’re saying correctly?”

  “That’s basically it,” Thistle acknowledged.

  “I guess I can see where that would work,” Landon said after a few moments of contemplation. “It’s not as if these women could go to law enforcement and claim that a witch put a curse on them. They would’ve been laughed out of the building at best and locked up for a psych evaluation at worst.”

  I patted his knee. “Welcome to our world.”

  “I never really considered it that way.” Landon chewed on his bottom lip. “I’ll run a search on Scarlet if I get time tomorrow, but don’t get your hopes up.”

  “That’s all we ask.” I forced a sugary smile. “I promise to reward you for your efforts if you come up with anything good.”

  Landon snickered. “You’re rewarding me regardless.” He shifted his eyes to the clock on the wall. “Starting right now, too. We have an hour and a half before dinner. That means you can wash my back in the shower.”

  “Is that a euphemism for something else?”

  Landon’s smile was lazy. “When are you going to learn that everything I say is a euphemism for something else?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll give it serious thought, though.”

  Thistle made a derisive sound in the back of her throat. “He just told you that he’s a pervert and you encouraged him to keep at it. You guys make me sick sometimes.”

  “Right back at you.” Landon grabbed me around the waist as he swung me up from the couch. “Just think, soon you won’t be here for us to make you sick.”

  “I’m really looking forward to that.”

  “So am I.”

  That made three of us. “No fighting,” I ordered. “I’m too tired for fighting.”

  “I’ll fix that right up,” Landon promised. “In an hour, you’ll forget you were even tired.”

  That sounded like an impressive feat, one I looked forward to.

  Eleven

  We decided to walk to The Overlook for dinner. The guesthouse was situated on a parcel of land that had been in my family for … well … as long as I knew. The walk took only ten minutes when the weather cooperated. It wasn’t exactly warm out, but we were running out of time to enjoy the great outdoors. Within two weeks or so, winter would invade and we would have no choice but to hunker down and wait it out.

  “It’s not so bad.” Landon wrapped his hand around mine as we walked. “It’s a little brisk, but not unbearable.”

  “Yeah.” My mind was elsewhere, so I kept only half an ear on what he said. I couldn’t get the idea of Scarlet Darksbane trying to curse me out of my head. Sure, it seemed farfetched when you looked at it from an analytical point of view. Why focus on me, after all? Still … the suspicion was right there and I couldn’t shake it.

  Landon, seemingly oblivious, kept babbling. “And then I’m going to join the circus and run off with the bearded lady so we can live happily ever after.”

  “That sounds fun,” I said mindlessly.

  “Hey, Bay?”

  “Hmm.”

  “If you don’t start paying attention to me I’ll be the one to make you eat dirt.”

  The threat was enough to cause me to jerk my head in his direction. “What?”

  “You haven’t listened to a word I’ve said,” Landon pointed out. “I’ve been a delightful conversationalist, too. You’re hurting my feelings.”

  I didn’t miss the hint of mischief floating in his eyes. “Sorry. I … was thinking.”

  “About Scarlet Darksbane?”

  I saw no reason to lie. “Yeah.”

  Landon’s face was serious. “Do you think she’s trying to hurt you?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe she’s running the same scam she did before. Maybe she was just trying to irritate me because she thinks I believe she’s a murderer.”

  “Do you believe she’s a murderer?”

  That was an interesting question. “I don’t know. We don’t know enough about Adele Twigg to come up with a motive. We need more information. Plus, you said it yourself. The way Adele’s body was strung up, it either had to be a man, more than one person or Wonder Woman.”

  Landon smirked. “We’ll figure it out. I don’t want you driving yourself crazy with the notion that Scarlet is guilty, though. I’m starting to regret taking you to the scene.”

  “You wouldn’t have the information you already have if it wasn’t for me.”

  “True.” Landon squeezed my hand. “I like working with you, but I’m not a fan of you putting yourself in danger. Be extra careful for me while this is going on, okay? Whoever did this … .”

  “Is a monster,” I finished, exhaling heavily. “I’ve got it.”

  “Then we’ll let it go for now.” Landon and I lapsed into comfortable silence as we walked, Landon breaking it first. “When are you going to move into the big office at The Whistler?”

  The question took me by surprise. “What do you mean?”

  “Sweetie, you’re going to be the owner in less than a month. That means you get the big office.”

  I hadn’t really considered that. Several weeks ago, thanks to a twist of fate and Landon’s determination to get my boss Brian Kelly out of my life, I signed a purchase agreement to take over The Whistler. We would close on the sale right after the holidays and, come the first of the year, I’d be a business owner rather than an editor and reporter.

  “You think I should move to the big office?”

  Landon smirked. “Yeah. That’s your office. You can even fit a bigger couch in there for when we need naps.”

  I chuckled. “Only you would focus on that.”

  “That’s not what I’m focused on,” Landon corrected. “I only thought of it this afternoon when we were both crowded onto that small loveseat. Still, you deserve the big office. You should be happy to move into it.”

  “It’s a lot to think about,” I admitted. “I never thought I’d be the one in charge.”

  “Really?” Landon cocked a dubious eyebrow. “You’ve enjoyed bossing me around from the beginning.”

  “Ha, ha.” I sucked in a breath. “I’m kind of excited. I know it sounds lame because I’ll be doing the exact same job I was before – plus I’ll have to handle the advertising – but it still seems like a big deal.”

  “That’s because it is a big deal, Bay.” Landon slowed his pace as we approached The Overlook’s back door, the entryway that led to the family living quarters. My family waited on the other side, but he clearly needed one more moment of privacy. “I want you to be happy. I think this is something you’ve always wanted. It’s okay to be excited.”

  “I know. It’s just … in a few weeks I’ll be the boss. It’s all going to be on me. I’ll be making all of the decisions.”

  “Does that worry you?”

  I opened my mouth to answer, but nothing immediately came out. I wasn’t sure what to say. “I guess ‘worry’ isn’t the word I would choose,” I said after a moment. “I am excited … and nervous … and a little bit freaked. It’s a big deal. Other than you moving in, it’s the biggest thing that’s happened to me since I moved back to Hemlock Cove.”

  Landon smiled. “Things are coming together for us quickly. I like that. It’s important that you take a moment to enjoy what’s about to happen. You’ll remember this for a very long time.

  “The work will always be there,” he continued. “This excitement will change over time. I think you’ll always love being the boss. I
t won’t always be new, though. Take some time to enjoy what’s about to happen.”

  “I will.” I leaned forward and planted a firm kiss on the corner of his mouth. “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome. Now … shall we place a bet on whether or not Aunt Tillie is in a mood?”

  I grinned. “She’s always in a mood.”

  “Let’s see what the mood du jour is, shall we?”

  We didn’t have to look far. My great-aunt, who just happened to be dressed in a pair of dragon leggings that I knew for a fact my mother confiscated months ago, sat on the couch glaring at the television.

  “What is the Declaration of Independence,” she yelled at Alex Trebek.

  “What is the Louisiana Purchase,” one of the television contestants said.

  “Correct.”

  “Son of a … what a load of crap!” Aunt Tillie muttered. “What are you two doing? I see you over there loitering.”

  “We weren’t loitering,” Landon countered quickly. “We were merely taking cover from the dragons.”

  “Yeah, I thought Mom took those leggings away from you.” I slipped out of my jacket and hung it on the coatrack. “I believe the term ‘dire consequences’ was bandied about if you tried to wear them again.”

  Aunt Tillie was blasé. “I’m not afraid of your mother.”

  That’s not exactly how I remembered the conversation. While it was true that Aunt Tillie didn’t normally fear anyone, if she kowtowed to anyone it was Mom. My mother had a certain way of bending wills that was both uncomfortable and truly frightening.

  “Yeah, but I watched her throw those away,” Landon noted. “She said they were obscene. Given where the dragon is hiding his gold when you bend over, I can’t help but agree.”

  “That shows what you know,” Aunt Tillie shot back. “I’m wearing a sweater that covers the dragon’s cave.”

  “Even when you bend over?” I challenged.

  “I’m old. I don’t bend over very often.”

  “That’s what I thought.” I made a tsking sound as I rounded the couch, digging in my pocket to retrieve the poppet and tossing the baggie in Aunt Tillie’s direction. “What do you make of that?”